


I Like You

by The_Audacity



Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 08:20:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29589915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Audacity/pseuds/The_Audacity
Summary: Uryuu has a confession to make.
Relationships: Ishida Uryuu & Kurosaki Ichigo
Kudos: 6





	I Like You

“I like you.”

“What?”

“I said I like you, Kurosaki.”

There was absolutely no expression on Ishida’s face as he conveyed the simple message in flawless monotone. Ichigo blinked a couple of times and blankly repeated, “What?”

Ignoring his pointless question the second time, Ishida looked straight into his eyes and told him, “Don’t worry, I already know your answer. Telling you was just an act of closure. Now that I’ve said it, I can move on.”

With that, he tapped his glasses precisely into place and turned on a heel to stride off.

“Wait!” Ichigo squawked, jogging to catch up and gripping his arm to slow his momentum. “What the hell, Ishida? You can’t just spring something like that on me and walk away!”

“I told you, it was merely a formality,” he assured, calmly pulling free from Ichigo’s hold. “There’s no need to respond.”

Ishida kept walking. Ichigo didn’t grab him again but kept pace beside him to continue the conversation. “Where is this coming from all of a sudden?”

“It isn’t sudden. I’ve liked you since we invaded Hueco Mundo together.”

“Three _years_ ago!?”

“Three years and five months next…Sunday,” confirmed Ishida with a quick upward glance like he was calculating it in his head as he spoke. “Although I’ve probably liked you since before you even became a Shinigami and just didn’t realize it until later.”

“Wha—But— _How_?”

“How did I realize I liked you?” Ichigo nodded dumbly. Without hesitation, he explained, “During the fight with Ulquiorra, watching you struggle not to lose yourself to the Hollow inside you made me more afraid than I’d ever been for myself. At one point, I decided that if it came down to it, I would give my life to protect yours—and Inoue-san’s, of course, but mainly yours.”

“Shit, that’s…” At a loss, he stared at Ishida’s poised profile in nothing short of full-blown shock. “No, but…”

“It’s fine, Kurosaki. Really. You don’t need to say anything. In fact, I encourage you to put it out of your mind indefinitely, as I plan to do.”

Manner as dismissive as his words, he wouldn’t even look at Ichigo anymore. Ishida’s composure was so perfect it was eerie. How was he saying all that stuff without a hint of emotion behind any of it? Who confessed their secret, long-term love for someone in such a perfunctory, stoic way? It made everything so much harder to believe. Yet, Ichigo knew it was even less likely to be a joke or a trick, which only confused him further.

“A-are you sure it’s not, like, really deep friendship feelings?”

Rather than getting annoyed or defensive, Ishida _smirked_. There and gone in an instant, but Ichigo definitely saw it. He almost tripped over a crack in the sidewalk because of it.

“I’m sure, Kurosaki.”

“Okay, but how do you know? I mean, it could be—”

“Let’s see,” he abruptly began and held up a hand to count off examples on his fingers, “the first time I saw you without a shirt, I blushed so bad I got dizzy. My heart races whenever I get to see you fight in bankai. That playful grin you show once in a while makes my knees feel weak. The handful of times you’ve ever had cause to touch me, your reiryoku…Well, suffice it to say I find it very pleasant under the right conditions. Oh, and I seem to have a thing for scars; I’ve kind of always wanted to drag my palms over yours and map them out with my eyes closed.

“Now, is that enough evidence of sexual attraction or shall I continue?”

Ichigo opened his mouth but only a strained wheeze came out. It was a lot to process when he’d been expecting Ishida to nervously mumble something about thinking he was sort of handsome or whatever. After hearing all of those unnervingly specific illustrations mentioned so casually, Ichigo was the embarrassed one of the pair.

Seeming to intuit his frazzled state of mind, Ishida let the subject drop without listing extra examples and they traveled in silence for a few minutes. It took Ichigo that long to shuffle his thoughts into some semblance of order.

“Why didn’t you say all of this sooner?”

“What an odd question,” commented Ishida with a quirk of his eyebrow.

“Too ‘odd’ to deserve an answer?”

He finally looked at Ichigo then, a curious cast to his features. “Frankly, I don’t understand why you’re asking questions at all. This must be uncomfortable for you, so why not take my advice and let it go? It was selfish of me to disrupt your evening with such a trivial topic in the first place.”

“Trivial? Are you kidding me?” Laughing humorlessly, he challenged, “Do you even hear yourself right now?”

Ishida sighed softly and faced forward again. They were getting close to his house—the one Ichigo had seen but never actually been in before. He could sense Ishida Ryuuken’s reiatsu residing within and wondered if he knew his son was apparently gay. Or at least, gay for one man in particular. Ichigo wouldn’t put it past him to be bi or pansexual or something open-minded and super modern like that.

“If you must know, I kept it to myself on account of Inoue-san.”

“What’s Inoue go to do with this?”

“She’s in love with you,” Ishida reminded, unflinchingly direct. “Or have you forgotten the confession she gave just last week?”

Hoping he couldn’t see how Ichigo’s cheeks were flushing pink, “Yeah, but…” he tried, then regrouped to ask, “why wait until _she_ confessed to make _your_ confession?”

“Obviously, if you heard hers first, mine would barely register as an afterthought.”

“Oh, obviously,” he sarcastically quipped. “Are you the dumbest genius in the world, or what?”

Mouth pursing in mild irritation, Ishida reasoned, “You’ve already scheduled a date with her, haven’t you? That’s what she told me, anyway.”

“Wait, does she know that you…?”

“No, and I’d prefer to keep it that way.”

On that subject, they were in absolute agreement.

Ichigo shook his head and switched gears to debate, “Just because we agreed to go out together doesn’t automatically mean we’re a couple, much less _married_ or whatever weird scenario you’re thinking.”

“You will be.”

It was spoken with complete conviction, which pissed him off a little. “Listen, Ishida, I—”

“This is me,” he interrupted with a wave at the door they halted in front of, taking out his keys to unlock it. “Goodnight.”

“What? Hey!”

Ishida stepped inside and turned to shut the door but Ichigo shouldered past it, kicking off his shoes to traipse right in as if it were his own home. He only hesitated when he spotted Ishida’s dad—and Ishida’s dad spotted him—as he was passing the kitchen on his left. They made brief eye contact. Ichigo nodded politely and carried on toward a hallway leading to a room with the highest concentration of Ishida’s latent reiatsu.

“Kurosaki, what do you think you’re doing?” There was a hint of emotion in Ishida’s voice at last. Even if it was exasperation, Ichigo was just glad to hear him ditch the android persona. “How many times do I need to tell you this isn’t a big deal before you get it?”

He waited until Ishida closed his bedroom door behind them to reply, “Two of my best friends confessed to me recently—”

“Just because we study together more often since starting university doesn’t make us best friends.”

“—but it’s not a big deal?” Ichigo seamlessly finished, overlooking Ishida’s half-hearted protest.

“Inoue-san’s is a big deal. _Only_ hers.”

“Are you saying your feelings aren’t as important as hers?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“So, you don’t like me as much as she does?” He took a breath to respond, but paused and averted his gaze instead. Ichigo stepped closer to him as he demanded, “What the hell gave you the idea this would be an easy choice for me!?”

Broadcasting astonishment, Ishida’s eyes flared and flicked to his. “I…Y-you’re not…”

“I’m not what? Not gay? How would you know? You never asked.”

He turned his head aside and Ichigo took it to mean he was refusing to answer. But after a few seconds, he reluctantly murmured, “You’re not interested in me that way. How could you be?” Before he had time to reply, Ishida griped, “This isn’t how I pictured our discussion would go at all. You were supposed to be freaked out and make up some excuse to run off right away. Maybe even avoid me for a couple of weeks. I never dreamed you would dig your teeth in and lock on like a rabid pit bull!”

“Well, sorry to throw you off-script but I kinda take it seriously when someone I’ve known for years randomly says they’re into me.”

“I told you it’s not necessary to take this seriously,” he insisted, running a hand through his hair and crossing his arms in clear discomfiture. “There’s no ‘choice,’ Kurosaki; I have no intention of competing with Inoue-san for your affection, or anything ridiculous like that.”

“Why is it ridiculous?”

“Because this,” Ishida loosely gestured between them, “ _we_ would never work. We hardly get along as friends, much less…”

“Boyfriends?” His Adam’s apple bobbed on a nervous swallow and Ichigo couldn’t help pressing, “That’s what you want, isn’t it? You even said all that stuff about me making your heart race and your knees weak. Unless you were just messing with me?”

“No, but this—”

“You wanna know what I think?” He watched Ishida’s mouth shut uncertainly as trepidation drifted over his features like storm clouds. “I think Inoue’s beautiful, inside and out. So are you.” His mouth fell open again to gape and Ichigo almost smiled at his surprise. “I think you’re smart and kind and loyal. You’re awesome in your own way.”

“Stop it,” he said, eyes narrowing in discontent.

“I think you’re sexy, Ishida.” At his disbelieving glare, Ichigo affirmed, “I do. And I think the only reason we don’t get along great as friends is because we started out as rivals and never really moved past it. We’re both stupidly stubborn guys, too. We give each other shit and shrug it off after ‘cause that’s easier than being vulnerable.”

As if dreading the answer, Ishida reluctantly asked, “Have you…thought about this before?”

“Yeah.” He looked stricken to hear it confirmed but Ichigo mercilessly forged on, “I’ve thought about all kinds of stuff like that because our friendship is important to me. No matter how many times you call me an idiot, I’m always gonna care about you. That’s what happens when you live and dream and fight beside someone like we have.”

A lengthy hush followed that bold assertion. Ishida fiddled with his glasses and pretended he wasn’t blushing a little. He was trying so hard to remain impartial, acting like none of it meant much to him although Ichigo already knew that wasn’t the case. For him to bring this up at all proved he was emotionally invested. Hearing Ishida talk about ‘closure’ and ‘letting it go’ and how it’s ‘not a big deal’ was a more genuine confession than ‘I like you’ ever could’ve been.

The truth was he’d been _pining_ for Ichigo all along, whether or not he was brave enough to fully own up to it right then.

“It makes no difference, Kurosaki,” he finally broke the quiet to claim. “None of it. Inoue-san is—”

“Why do you keep saying her name like it should instantly win the argument?”

“Because it should!” Ishida let folded arms fall to his sides and took an aggressive step forward to shout, “You really are an idiot if you can’t figure out that much for yourself!”

“No, _you’re_ the idiot if you think I would never consider picking you over her!”

“You wouldn’t—you _shouldn’t_. I won’t let you!”

“You don’t get to decide that, Ishida, so quit trying to boss me around!”

“I will when you quit playing around,” he darkly retorted. “I don’t know whether you’re crazy or making some horrible joke—”

“I’m not joking!”

“Crazy, then. Either way, I’ve had enough. Go home!”

This wasn’t getting them anywhere. Ichigo scowled mightily as he contemplated the whole situation. He knew Ishida was only doing his chivalrous ‘ladies first’ thing by practically shoving Inoue in his face but it was starting to become infuriating. Ichigo didn’t want to hurt her any more than Ishida did but he wasn’t quite self-sacrificing enough to sign up for a lifetime of wondering ‘what if’ just because she didn’t deserve to have her heart broken. Neither did Ishida!

It was on Ichigo’s shoulders to choose which heart he would take, and which he would be forced to break.

When he didn’t move to leave as ordered, Ishida opened his door and stood by waiting for Ichigo to get the message and go. Instead, he pushed the door shut and crowded Ishida up against it so he couldn’t escape once he realized this wasn’t over yet. He stiffened and stared at Ichigo. A veneer of antagonism and bravado failed to hide the hint of fear flickering behind his eyes. Whether Ishida was more afraid of what he or Ichigo might do next was a mystery.

“What would you say if I told you I’ve thought about kissing you?”

The veneer cracked, letting more of his anxiety rise to the surface, but Ishida smoothly countered, “I’d say it must have been an exceptionally boring day in class for you to waste time on such absurd notions.”

“I was at home,” corrected Ichigo, “lying in bed.” He planted a palm to the wood beside Ishida’s shoulder when he twitched like he was plotting to slip away. “We had just met up to hunt a few Hollow in the middle of the night. I was still getting used to controlling my new powers after the war and you mocked me for missing an easy opening. Remember?”

“Hard to say,” he flatly intoned, “I’ve mocked you so many times during battle I’ve lost count.”

“Yeah, you have.” Ichigo’s grin had a violent edge to it but he still noticed how it made Ishida’s breath hitch. “We bickered back and forth for a while and I sorta wanted to smack you…but then I saw the way your lips were flushed.” Just like they were at the moment. When had that happened? Ichigo briefly bit his own lip and went on, “I couldn’t stop thinking about what it’d be like to kiss you. I thought about it all night after that, plus most of the next week in school. And that was only the first time.”

“So what?” Ishida staunchly argued despite a subtle waver in his voice. “Don’t bother denying you’ve thought of kissing Inoue-san, too. Even I’ve thought about her once or twice.”

Ichigo arched an eyebrow at that.

“I can’t deny I’ve fantasized about other people but that’s not the point.” Ishida lifted his chin a bit, wordlessly daring him to even attempt a convincing argument after making that concession. “The point is you’re just as much of an option for me as Inoue, whether you like it or not.”

“Don’t you get it, Kurosaki? I’m scratching my own name off the list. I won’t be one of your ‘options,’ whether _you_ like it or not.”

“Damn it, Ishida, you don’t get to confess and then reject me! That’s not how this works!”

“Stop yelling, dumbass!” The color on his cheeks intensified in embarrassment even as the angle of his eyes sharpened in warning.

“Do you want my father to hear everything?”

That gave Ichigo pause, but only because he didn’t want to be interrupted. He grasped a fistful of Ishida’s shirt and dragged him away from the door, deeper into the room where it would be harder to overhear them. Ishida hissed his name and shoved him off, breathing faster from the fleeting fright of his sudden maneuver.

They were standing next to his bed. He glanced at it, then at Ichigo with this wary expression that really ticked him off.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m not gonna attack you!”

“You already have! This entire argument is an attack,” he proclaimed as his hands clenched at his sides. “What will it take for you to leave? What do you _want_ from me?”

“I want you to say you’ll go out with me!”

Both of them froze at that. He hadn’t known he was going to suggest it until he’d done it. In spite of the way Ishida was gawking at him like he had proposed marriage instead, he still wasn’t inclined to take it back.

“You already have a date with Inoue-san!”

“I’ll cancel right now if it bothers you,” offered Ichigo, pulling his phone from a pocket.

“No, don’t you dare,” Ishida said in a horrified rush, reaching to snatch his phone away before catastrophe struck. Ichigo evaded, Ishida gave chase, and next thing he knew they were squabbling over it like a couple of grade school brats. His one advantage was a couple of inches in height, and he held the phone up high, just out of the slightly shorter man’s reach. “Kurosaki!”

He laughed, which was the wrong thing to do since Ishida promptly shoved him sideways. Ichigo’s body bounced on the mattress hard enough to lose his grip. Ishida dove for the phone and flung it under his pillow, where neither of them could reach it from their current position. His current position being: sprawled atop the bed with his legs hanging off the edge and Ishida straddling one of his spread thighs.

Ichigo peered up at him, thinking there were plenty of other ways to get the phone from him—including simply jabbing him in the gut, which had definitely happened before—and he wondered if Ishida had subconsciously gone with this method because it was the hottest one of all.

Appearing to realize his mistake at last, he made a small noise in the back of his throat and started to retreat from astride Ichigo, who caught his arm to keep him there on instinct.

“If Inoue wasn’t in the picture,” he began, postponing Ishida’s tantrum, “would you go out with me?”

He tugged free of Ichigo’s grip and straightened where he knelt but miraculously stayed there as he stammered, “I-I don’t know.”

Leaning up on elbows, he tried, “If I said ‘I like you, too,’ would you accept my feelings?”

“Probably not.” Ishida looked away when he said it, though, which made his answer seem dubious at best.

Ichigo sat up partway, bracing against the mattress to keep some of the distance between them, but not too much.

“If I told you ‘I really want to kiss you right now,’” he valiantly ventured, appreciating the way Ishida’s eyes darted to his as his blush slowly spread, “would you let me?”

He didn’t say ‘no’ but he jerked his hand away when Ichigo’s fingertips grazed the back of it. That single action was almost enough to dissuade him, until he recalled what Ishida had said about his reiryoku being ‘very pleasant’ whenever they touched. That meant he enjoyed it, right? Except he didn’t want to enjoy it. He didn’t want to feel this way about Ichigo if it could end up making Inoue miserable in his place.

Without moving at all or saying anything, he tested his theory by letting a little more reiryoku radiate out from his soul. The immediate reaction was a shallow gasp and an accusatory glare.

“Don’t do that,” he commanded. Ichigo ignored him, released even more, and wrapped his hand firmly around Ishida’s. “ _Kurosaki_.”

His righteous snarl was at odds with the fact that he didn’t even try to stop Ichigo. He didn’t pull away or push him off or stand up to break contact entirely. There was no tension in Ishida’s hand, no real anger in his expression, and the longer they lingered like that the more Ichigo believed he wasn’t angry at all.

Actually, Ishida seemed almost _eager_ in a conflicted, crumbling restraint kind of way. Ichigo quelled a smirk at the last second and licked his lips instead.

Gradually loosening his grip, he waited to see if Ishida would run once he let go. When he didn’t budge an inch, Ichigo very slowly began to trail his fingertips up the side of Ishida’s arm. Ichigo felt shivers cascade across his skin, saw his eyelashes flutter from the pleasure, and heard his breath catch before easing out as a light sigh. Ishida’s involuntary responses encouraged him to continue the gesture over a shoulder and up the side of his neck but the instant Ichigo touched his ear, he inhaled shakily as his eyes snapped shut.

“Sensitive ears?” he softly teased and rubbed his thumb over the lobe.

Ishida shivered harder than ever, biting his lip against the beginning of a noise that made Ichigo’s heart skip before doubling its pace. Enthralled by the image Ishida presented, he found himself leaning closer without conscious thought. Ichigo didn’t even realize he was staring at Ishida’s mouth until the pad of his thumb touched the corner, making it part invitingly.

Or so Ichigo hoped until he whispered, “I can’t do this.” Ishida’s eyes opened to find his, and he didn’t miss how much darker they had become since a moment ago. “I can’t _let you_ do this. Ino—”

“If you say her name one more time…” Ichigo threatened, leaving the rest to be implied.

Intuiting his seriousness from his tone, he hesitated to finish the protest but eventually said, “Kurosaki, she—”

“What do you want, Ishida?” Curving a palm around the back of his neck, Ichigo reeled him in until Ishida had to prop against his shoulders or risk falling against him. With their faces close enough to feel each other’s quick breaths, he asked, “What do you need?”

Ishida held his gaze for several long seconds. Then his hands curled into the cotton of Ichigo’s shirt as he admitted, “ _You_.”

The sound Ishida made when their lips met said everything he wouldn’t. How much he wanted this. How awful he felt for it. How hard it was to resist. Ichigo heard both desperation and resignation in that sound but didn’t approve of either. In order to change it, he knew he had to make a decision.

After seeing Ishida like this, there was really only one choice to be made.

“I like Inoue,” he broke the kiss to admit. Ishida was devastated to hear his fear confirmed—absolutely _crushed_ —but he wasn’t surprised. Not even a little bit. That more than anything solidified Ichigo’s resolve to declare, “I like you more.”

Inadvertently mimicking Ichigo’s stunned face from earlier, Ishida blurted, “What?”

Ichigo kissed him again to coax him from his stupor and repeated, “I like you.”

“No, but—”

He smiled and teased, “I choose _you_ , Ishida Uryuu.” His lame excuse for a Pokémon joke did not have the intended effect, so Ichigo sobered to rephrase, “I want to be with you. I know you’re worried about Inoue but she’s strong. She’ll understand and she _will_ be all right. So, quit using her as an excuse and just say you wanna be with me, too.”

Ishida didn’t say anything. His eyes shifted back and forth between Ichigo’s for a moment. Then he looped arms around his neck and collapsed against him. Ichigo automatically returned the hug with his free arm, but soon eased back against the bed so he could hold Ishida properly with both. It felt strange and right at the same time, like something he’d never done but should’ve been doing all along.

“I want you,” he murmured, lightly kissing along Ichigo’s jaw line. “Want to be with you. Want to feel the heat of your skin and the softness of your hair.”

Fingers combed through his hair as Ishida said it, making his scalp tingle pleasantly. Ichigo hid a grin against his throat and requested, “I wanna hear you say my name, just once.”

Ishida paused, warm breath tickling the side of his face. He shyly called, “Ichigo.”

His grip tightened on Ishida’s back as a powerful emotion sparked in his chest. “Uryuu,” he gently returned. A tremor shook through his frame and he kissed Ichigo in a way that proved he felt the same.


End file.
